Shares of the San Francisco-based retailer jumped 9 percent in after-hours trading Thursday following the report.

Gap said it earned $205 million, or 52 cents per share, in the quarter that ended Feb. 3. That's down from $220 million, or 55 cents per share a year earlier

When the results were adjusted for one-time pretax expenses, Gap reported a profit of 61 cents per share. The analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected earnings of 59 cents per share.

Comparable sales for the company overall grew 5 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 2 percent the previous year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected comparable sales growth of 1.4 percent.

The company's Old Navy again reported the best sales numbers with 9 percent growth over last year's 5 percent gain. Gap continues to adjust to changing habits of customer who spend more time shopping online and less at malls.

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GPS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GPS